Cubs 17, Pirates 3

The Cubs blasted a bunch of homers to put this game out of reach, including two by Kyle Schwarber. But before then, they plated several runs on good baserunning. Javy Baez's steal of home, set up by a steal of second and a throwing error by Chris Stewart was most notable, but the Cubs managed to take extra bases on Happ's RBI single in the first and Bryant scored from first on a Rizzo double in the third.

Everyone in the starting lineup had at least one hit, including an RBI single from Jose Quintana as the Cubs blew things wide open in the fifth. Even Rene Rivera had three hits.

Quintana had a rocky start to the game, including two consecutive two strike HBPs, but from the sounds of it he didn't get much help from his defense or the BABIP dragon either. He cruised the rest of the way, facing just one batter above the minimum for the rest of his outing. Best of all, he struck out nine while walking none.

Three down:

Yeah, those aformentioned HBPs were not ideal.

The Cubs had Nova on the ropes in the first inning, but only came away with one run. I think we can forgive them for this, this time around.

I don't have the play index-fu to look this up, but this has to be one of the worst WPA performances for a guy who hit two homers in a game. Schwarber went 2-6 with 2 HR and 4 RBI, what was good for a WPA of -.072. He struck out twice and grounded out before homering to cap off the Cubs offensive explosion in the fifth.

Next up: The Cubs play a four game set with the Braves at Wrigley, then see the Pirates again next week for four games in Pittsburgh.

If you would have told me at the beginning of the year that 6 cubs hit 20+ homers before September, I would not have been surprised, but I would have thought Russell, Zobrist, or even Heyward would have been on the list.

Obviously there’s still time for him to break, but the Nats have a damn good postseason rotation with Scherzer, Strasburg, and Gonzalez. I’d give them an edge over the Cubs, though Arrieta and Hendricks have both looked better of late.

I’d be happy if it was just Lackey. Verlander is still pretty good and if Lester isn’t entirely healthy the rest of the way, I know I’d much, much rather have Verlander than Lackey. My guess is they want to send some cash and get a top prospect. I don’t think they’ll get it, but he’ll probably still be above average next season so the Tigers won’t be in any urgency to trade him for next to nothing.